Le Monde owes its readers an explanation about our coverage of the deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital on Tuesday, October 17.
That evening, Le Monde published an article based on an Agence France-Presse wire about the bombing of the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, attributing the strike to the Israeli army, with an initial death toll of 200. The article quickly stated that the Israeli authorities were carrying out checks and were expressing doubts about the veracity of the reports. This article appeared as the top story on our websites, both the French and English editions, as it did on other leading news sites around the world.
Later in the evening, we reported the Israeli army denied being responsible for the explosion, and attributed it to a rocket fired by Islamic Jihad, an organization allied to Hamas. As the evening went on, doubts and contradictions about the explosion accumulated. We covered these in the breaking news coverage of the war on our websites and on the front page of the following day's print newspaper (dated Thursday, October 19), which ran a more general headline on the "ordeal of the population" in Gaza and mentioned "several hundred civilians dead" from the explosion at the hospital – the unverifiable death toll is currently estimated by US intelligence services to be between 100 and 300. Our reports also included Hamas's accusations and Israel's denial.
On Thursday, October 19, we published an investigation by our video department which, though it does not give formal proof, assembles images and chronological elements, none of which support the theory that the Israeli army was responsible. This reporting, those by other news organizations as well as multiple expert reports tend to show, without being able to formally prove it, that the explosion at Al Ahli Arab Hospital was caused by the fall of a rocket fired from within Gaza by a Palestinian armed group.
Investigations into the origin of this tragedy are ongoing, but these corroborating elements lead us to believe that we were not cautious enough, on October 17, when we reported Hamas's declaration on this explosion.
Precaution is all the more necessary as, unfortunately, we do not have the means to verify information on the ground. The Israeli army bans access to Gaza, and the international press is absent. Le Monde's newsroom can only gather eyewitness accounts from civilians, via poor telephone and Internet connections, while they are under constant threat of bombardment and depend on the power supplied by Israel.
After assessing the danger, it is usually up to news organizations to decide whether or not to send their reporters into a war zone. In this case, we don't have that choice.
To take account of this situation, which we deplore, we will regularly remind our readers that some news coming out of the Gaza Strip, in particular casualty figures, cannot be verified. To be transparent about the origin of these figures, we have also decided to change the way we present them, by stating that they come from the health ministry in the Gaza Strip "administered by Hamas."
Further changes in our practices may be adopted in the days to come concerning this conflict between Israel and Hamas, which is more than just another episode in the tensions that regularly inflame this region of the world.
The ongoing events, since the atrocities committed by Hamas during the terrorist operation of October 7, are part of a war without mercy, which promises to be long, causing tragedies and multiple shockwaves. We owe it to your loyalty and trust to respond with the most complete and reliable editorial coverage possible.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.